Yesterday’s Song

This week’s Rhythm of Practicing Peace is a bit different than our previous ones. I thought I’d share an impacting personal moment from my life this past week in hopes that you too would be encouraged in your life with God, people, and the world around you.

Story

Just few days ago I was sitting on a bench in the shade during our communities monthly leadership meeting. The voice of the leader speaking slowly faded out as an unfolding picture began to flood my mind. The picture would be difficult to describe, but as it played like a movie in my minds eye, I felt God helping make sense of what it meant.

Today’s practice is centered around what I felt like He was saying, and the reason I'm sharing it is because I'm hoping it will be an encouragement or push towards Love for more than just myself. If you find it to be this for you, wonderful! I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

At the core, it’s about “yesterday’s song”, or in other words the something that has recently stood out to you, encouraged you, or helped you get through a recent season of life. It’s the good word, or song, that defined your last few weeks, months, or years. It’s that verse you said over and over, that line from a book jumped off the page and become a part of you, that song that seemed to put to words everything you were feeling and experiencing in your life. This is what I mean by the phrase “yesterday’s song.”

But like most things, a paradox exists when thinking about yesterday’s song. On the one hand, it’s healthy to build our lives around what we know of God’s goodness through what He’s spoken to us in the past – our yesterdays. But on the other hand, it’s possible that God wants to show us entirely different angles of the things we think we already know all about.

Learning to value, record, and agree with what God speaks to us is the human process of becoming more like Jesus. But to fixate on something, even on good things, it can lead to idolatry. And… I think it’s possible for us to (with good intention) become so focused on yesterday’s song that we actually begin forgetting about the God that gave it to us.

And so, as I sat on the bench I began to realize this was where I found myself. I had become fixated on past songs (words, themes, etc.) that God had sang to me. My hands had become so tightly clutched to what was that I was no longer in a place to receive a song for today.

This was my response (made plural) to what I felt Him say to me in that place. A prayer for today. And I’m hoping something in it resonates with your soul that would move you towards longing for the deep places of God again. For a fresh and new song for today – for your here, and now.